Two new folders of photographs are up at our smugmug site! Please take a peek!


The first set are pictures taken when my family hiked in the Fossil Springs Wilderness in AZ back in Thanksgiving. It was a pretty damn hard hike - 8 miles down and back and a 1200 foot elevation change. But the bottom was so cool! Springs gushed out of a dry river bottom, transforming the desert into a lush, magical place. And the best part was the huge waterfall created by an old dam and flume.





I'd love to go back, but I'd need to prep more beforehand. My calves were sore for 4 days after the hike, ack.

And the second set are pictures of my bf's brother's latest project - building an AC Cobra kit car for a buyer. I want one. Very, very badly.



(Amusingly, the pics of this car have the most hits out of any of the pics we've posted on smugmug so far. The folder has been up for about a week and had 4000 hits! The best of the other pics get a tenth of that! And we didn't advertise this set of pics to anyone on the internet until now, so we don't know how all these people are finding them. ^_^)

Pretty decent shot considering it's -6 F out right now!

Too much fandom angst, let's have a Kiwi pic!



This shot was snapped just after Kiwi flew to the Triscuit box and somehow landed on the side flap like that. What a precarious perch. He LOVES Triscuits. We limit his intake, because they have too much salt for such a little bird.

There are more Kiwi shots in our new SmugMug subfolder here: http://rjphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/4233828#248801712

:)

Hi,

Toaster and I have started our smugmug site:

http://rjphotography.smugmug.com

We have just started posting photos, there will be much more to come in the future. We hope you enjoy the photos!

Hugs and kisses,

Toaster's bf...

I thought it would be best to divide the SD pics into multiple posts since I have a lot of pics to share!

We arrived at SD on Sunday, and after grabbing some lunch in Little Italy and dropping off our bags we headed off to the Wild Animal Park. Unfortunately, the park closed its gates at 4 pm and started getting dark soon after that, so we only had a few hours to see the place. We didn't get to see everything and we pushed through some exhibits faster than I would have liked, but overall it was fun!

(Also, SD zoos are EXPENSIVE. $35 per adult? Gah...)


Here's a beautiful duck hanging out in one of the pools.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/San%20Diego/duck1.jpg

Most of the waterfowl in the park are wild and stay there over winter to in the hope of easy food. There were tons of pelicans and ducks and egrets like this one, who showed zero fear even when people got a few feet from it.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/San%20Diego/egret.jpg


I loved the lorikeet exhibit, where one can buy a small cup of nectar and have the birds land on you to get a taste. The birds were very friendly and very loud!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/San%20Diego/lorikeet.jpg

We took a tram ride that went around the huge park, filled with rhinos and all sorts of four legged animals. The park apparently has a very successful breeding program. A gazelle and an antelope had been born that day! Two giraffes were very close to the road, so we got some good photos.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/San%20Diego/giraffe.jpg

After the ride was over, the sun was setting and exhibits were getting dark. We were very fortunate to be close to the lion exhibit, and have both the brother and sister out to play around and watch us!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/San%20Diego/lion.jpg

Despite being in the high 30s today (toasty!), the weather so far this year has not been conducive to photography. Grey skies, fog, cold temps, generally blech. So here's two more photos from last Christmas:

Flying high:


A better angle of an eagle catching a fish:


Three hooded mergansers! I've never seen them before - the males have such lovely coloring!

Snapped while out at the Black Dog plant this Christmas:









Our first record of a (immature) bald eagle snagging a fish! Yeah, the weather was cloudy and crummy so the photo wasn't as good as it could be, but still! While we were at that particular hole in the ice we saw 3-4 eagles dive into the river, but this sequence is the best. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!

I hope everyone spent some quality time with family and loved ones and got lots of lovely prezzies. :) My parents got me a laptop and a photo printer, so I can't wait to print out some photos! The bf and I printed out and framed several of the hummingbird photos earlier at Kinkos to give as gifts and it was so inconvenient (the photo machine was broken, argh). Everyone loved the prints - we were very happy it worked out well in the end. And the bf's parents got us a coffee/espresso maker so now I can be caffeinated all the time! *hyper*

It's snowing right now and we're about to have Christmas dinner, so no eagle watching today. But I can post my favorite photos from yesterday!

Here's a bald eagle taking flight: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/eagle3.jpg
And here's one after dining on a fish: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/eagle2-1.jpg
We saw a cormorant flying around: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/cormorant.jpg
And I spotted a pair of trumpeter swans in the lake: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/smart_p3anut/swans.jpg

Part 1 of my photos from the Thanksgiving trip to Phoenix.

This male Annas hummingbird hung around my parent's backyard and had little fear of me or the camera.

So I took some photos of him
Just a few
Maybe
Oh who am I kidding, he was such a cutie!

We saw quite a few fishing birds while at a bird sanctuary in Phoenix.

This egret spent all the time fishing...
...and eating what it found (great timing!)
We were also lucky enough to see a kingfisher, landing with its own fish in tow.

And we saw lots of birds at the morning walk at the Desert Botanical Gardens.


Lots of hummingbirds here feeding on the flowers
Plus a flock of quails
This one ran across the path in front of us, cute!

Here are some pics from several weekends ago when I went to see my mum at Pepin, a town along the Mississippi River. The restaurant was fantastic, but the weather was cruddy - cold and foggy and rainy. There were tons of seagulls around the harbor so we got lots of shots. On the drive home we were lucky enough to see a bald eagle perched on a tree by the road. We got one good shot before he flew back further to another tree to hang out with another eagle.

Seagulls
More seagulls
Bald Eagle

It snowed last week! Not enough to stick, but enough to get the ground damp. I've been wearing my winter coat for several days before that, and a week before we finally turned on the heat (we had been coasting on residual heat from our building).

My old apartment complex has been claimed by Mayo, probably to be turned into a parking lot or something. Last week the windows were boarded up and the fire department came and trained there. Right now they're tearing the place down. It's kinda fun to watch.

What did everyone think of SGA's Missing? I thought it was okay, Teyla kicked butt but Keller was sort of whiny. And the guy with the lollipop, snerk. ^_^